Decorating embedded graphic representations on social shares with metadata

ABSTRACT

Decorating embedded graphic representations on social shares with metadata is performed. A request is received by a content sharing platform from a social network for a representation of a content item. The representation of the content item is to be included in a social share on the social network. Current statistical information associated with the content item is identified. The representation of the content item and data indicative of the current statistical information associated with the content item is provided to the social network.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED CASES

This application is a continuation of U.S. Non-Provisional patentapplication Ser. No. 14/153,711, filed on 13 Jan. 2014 and entitled“DECORATING EMBEDDED GRAPHIC REPRESENTATIONS ON SOCIAL SHARES WITHMETADATA” which is incorporated by reference for all purposes.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to the field of socialnetworking services and, more particularly, to a method for decoratingembedded graphic representations on social shares with metadata.

BACKGROUND

On the Internet, social networks allow users to connect to and shareinformation with each other. Many social networks include a contentsharing aspect that allows users to upload, view, and share content,such as video content, image content, audio content, and so on. Otherusers of the social network may comment on the shared content, discovernew content, locate updates, share content, and otherwise interact withthe provided content. The shared content may include content fromprofessional content creators, e.g., movie clips, TV clips, and musicvideos, as well as content from amateur content creators, e.g., videoblogging and short original videos.

Currently, users are spending increased amounts of time on contentsharing platforms. “Sharing” of content items between users of thecontent sharing platform and with users of other social networks isimportant for driving views of content items of the content sharingplatform, starting viewing sessions on the content sharing platform, andincreasing watch time of content items on the content sharing platform.Sharing refers to a user of the content sharing platform promotingand/or endorsing a content item to another user of the content sharingplatform or of another social network for viewing purposes.

Often a user decides whether to consume (e.g., view, listen, etc.) acontent item based on metadata (e.g., statistics) about the consumptionof the content item by other users, such as the number of times thecontent item has been viewed or the number of times the content item hasbeen liked or given a positive rating. However, content items shared viaa social network typically are not presented with information about theconsumption of the content item that is up-to-date, such as the currentnumber of views or the current number of likes.

SUMMARY

In one embodiment, a method for decorating embedded graphicrepresentations on social shares with metadata is performed. A requestis received by a content sharing platform from a social network for arepresentation of a content item. The representation of the content itemis to be included in a social share on the social network. Currentstatistical information associated with the content item is identified.The representation of the content item and data indicative of thecurrent statistical information associated with the content item isprovided to the social network.

In additional embodiments, computing devices for performing theoperations of the above described embodiments are also implemented.Additionally, in embodiments of the disclosure, a computer readablestorage media stores methods for performing the operations of the abovedescribed embodiments.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure will be understood more fully from the detaileddescription given below and from the accompanying drawings of variousembodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example system architecture, in accordance withone embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an information identificationcomponent in accordance with one implementation of the disclosure.

FIG. 3 is an example screenshot illustrating a user interface decoratingembedded graphic representations on social shares with metadata, inaccordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating one embodiment for a method ofdecorating embedded graphic representations on social shares withmetadata, in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating one embodiment for a method ofdisplaying an embedded graphic representation decorated with metadata ona social share in a user interface, in accordance with one embodiment ofthe present disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an exemplary computer system that mayperform one or more of the operations described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

On content hosting and sharing platforms (“content sharing platforms”),users can see metadata (e.g., current statistical information) about acontent item, such as the number of views and likes the content itemhas, before they choose to watch it. The metadata helps users filterthrough the possibly large amount of content available on the contentsharing platform. For many users, a high view count or a high like countis a deciding factor between selecting one content item over anothercontent item.

The metadata about the content item may not be included in a socialshare when the content item is shared on a social network. Therefore,the user may not be able to see the metadata upon viewing the socialshare. In order to see the metadata, the user of the social network willinstead have to click through to watch the content item directly on thecontent sharing platform. For example, user A views video B that has avery high view count, and enjoys video B so much that user A decides topost video B to user A's social network page. When user C, who loves tosee the latest popular videos, goes to the social network, user C seesuser A's post. When user C sees user A's post about video B, user C willnot know that the video is popular because the high view count for videoB is not included in user A's post, and therefore user C decides not towatch video B. If the view count had been included in the post, user Cmay have watched video B when user C saw the very high view count forit. In another example, user A views video B that has a low view countbut enjoys video B and posts video B to user A's social network page. Afew days later, video B goes viral and the number of views for video Bbecomes very high. User C may not have watched the video upon visitingthe social network on the day that user A posted video B (because of thelow view count), but after a few days, would likely watch video B whenthe view count becomes very high.

Embodiments of the disclosure pertain to decorating embedded graphicrepresentations on social shares with metadata. A social share can be acomment, a post, or any other content shared (e.g., promoted orendorsed) by a user of the social network with one or more other usersof this or other social network and presented in a social network UI.The embedded graphic representation can be a thumbnail of the contentitem (e.g., an image, a video, etc.) embedded in a social share on asocial network. A request is received by a content sharing platform froma social network for a representation of a content item. As describedabove, conventionally, when the social network obtains therepresentation of the content item, that representation typically doesnot include any current statistical information about the content item.At best, conventionally, the social network can include a snapshot ofthe statistical information at the time when a social post that includesthe content item was created.

Embodiments of the present disclosure identify current statisticalinformation associated with the content item, such as the current numberof views or the current number of likes for the content item. In someembodiments, a response to the request includes data indicative of thecurrent statistical information for the content item, and the responseis provided to the social network by the content sharing platform. Abetter user experience is provided by the social network by causing thesocial network to display current statistical information for thecontent item because the experience more closely resembles the userexperience on the content sharing platform. Moreover, the user decisionto watch the content item may be easier to make when the currentstatistical information is provided and could cause an increase in thenumber of social network users who will consume content items associatedwith the content sharing platform. Sharing content items can be a largepercent of traffic on the content sharing platform. By causing thecurrent statistical information to be provided, a user may consume thecontent item, which might lead to further sharing of the content item,which might in turn lead to more views and more sharing of the contentitem. Moreover, when a user clicks on a content item in the socialnetwork, the social network may track those clicks and use them toimprove feed ranking. The improved feed ranking can cause posts on thesocial network that include the content item from the content sharingplatform to rank higher than if the current statistical information wasmissing.

Accordingly, aspects of the present disclosure allow a user to viewcurrent statistical information, such as up-to-date view counts andrating information, for a content item on a social network. The user canbe more likely to consume the shared content item because of the currentstatistical information and have accurate information in decidingwhether to consume the content item.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example system architecture 100, in accordancewith one implementation of the disclosure, for decorating embeddedgraphic representations on social shares with metadata. The systemarchitecture 100 includes client devices 110A through 110Z, a network105, a data store 106, a content sharing platform 120, and a server 130.In one implementation, network 105 may include a public network (e.g.,the Internet), a private network (e.g., a local area network (LAN) orwide area network (WAN)), a wired network (e.g., Ethernet network), awireless network (e.g., an 802.11 network or a Wi-Fi network), acellular network (e.g., a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network), routers,hubs, switches, server computers, and/or a combination thereof. In oneimplementation, the data store 106 may be a memory (e.g., random accessmemory), a cache, a drive (e.g., a hard drive), a flash drive, adatabase system, or another type of component or device capable ofstoring data. The data store 106 may also include multiple storagecomponents (e.g., multiple drives or multiple databases) that may alsospan multiple computing devices (e.g., multiple server computers).

The client devices 110A through 110Z may each include computing devicessuch as personal computers (PCs), laptops, mobile phones, smart phones,tablet computers, netbook computers etc. In some implementations, clientdevice 110A through 110Z may also be referred to as “user devices.” Eachclient device includes a media viewer 111. In one implementation, themedia viewers 111 may be applications that allow users to view content,such as images, videos, web pages, documents, etc. For example, themedia viewer 111 may be a web browser that can access, retrieve,present, and/or navigate content (e.g., web pages such as Hyper TextMarkup Language (HTML) pages, digital media items, etc.) served by a webserver. The media viewer 111 may render, display, and/or present thecontent (e.g., a web page, a media viewer) to a user. The media viewer111 may also display an embedded media player (e.g., a Flash® player oran HTML5 player) that is embedded in a web page (e.g., a web page thatmay provide information about a product sold by an online merchant). Inanother example, the media viewer 111 may be a standalone applicationthat allows users to view digital media items (e.g., digital videos,digital images, electronic books, etc.).

The media viewers 111 may be provided to the client devices 110A through110Z by the server 130 and/or content sharing platform 120. For example,the media viewers 111 may be embedded media players that are embedded inweb pages provided by the content sharing platform 120. In anotherexample, the media viewers 111 may be applications that are downloadedfrom the server 130.

In general, functions described in one implementation as being performedby the content sharing platform 120 can also be performed on the clientdevices 110A through 110Z in other implementations if appropriate. Inaddition, the functionality attributed to a particular component can beperformed by different or multiple components operating together. Thecontent sharing platform 120 can also be accessed as a service providedto other systems or devices through appropriate application programminginterfaces, and thus is not limited to use in websites.

In one implementation, the content sharing platform 120 may be one ormore computing devices (such as a rackmount server, a router computer, aserver computer, a personal computer, a mainframe computer, a laptopcomputer, a tablet computer, a desktop computer, etc.), data stores(e.g., hard disks, memories, databases), networks, software components,and/or hardware components that may be used to provide a user withaccess to media items and/or provide the media items to the user. Forexample, the content sharing platform 120 may allow a user to consume,upload, search for, approve of (“like”), dislike, and/or comment onmedia items. The content sharing platform 120 may also include a website(e.g., a webpage) that may be used to provide a user with access to themedia items.

The content sharing platform 120 may include multiple channels (e.g.,channels A through Z). A channel can be data content available from acommon source or data content having a common topic or theme. The datacontent can be digital content chosen by a user, digital content madeavailable by a user, digital content uploaded by a user, digital contentchosen by a content provider, digital content chosen by a broadcaster,etc. For example, a channel X can include videos Y and Z. A channel canbe associated with an owner, who is a user that can perform actions onthe channel. Different activities can be associated with the channelbased on the owner's actions, such as the owner making digital contentavailable on the channel, the owner selecting (e.g., liking) digitalcontent associated with another channel, the owner commenting on digitalcontent associated with another channel, etc. The activities associatedwith the channel can be collected into an activity feed for the channel.Users, other than the owner of the channel, can subscribe to one or morechannels in which they are interested. Once a user subscribes to achannel, the user can be presented with information from the channel'sactivity feed. If a user subscribes to multiple channels, the activityfeed for each channel to which the user is subscribed can be combinedinto a syndicated activity feed. Information from the syndicatedactivity feed can be presented to the user.

Each channel may include one or more media items 121. Examples of amedia item 121 can include, and are not limited to, digital video,digital movies, digital photos, digital music, website content, socialmedia updates, electronic books (ebooks), electronic magazines, digitalnewspapers, digital audio books, electronic journals, web blogs, realsimple syndication (RSS) feeds, electronic comic books, softwareapplications, etc. In some implementations, media item 121 is alsoreferred to as a media item or content item.

A media item 121 may be consumed via the Internet and/or via a mobiledevice application. For brevity and simplicity, an online video (alsohereinafter referred to as a video) is used as an example of a mediaitem 121 throughout this document. As used herein, “media,” media item,” “online media item,” “digital media,” “digital media item,” “content,”and “content item” can include an electronic file that can be executedor loaded using software, firmware or hardware configured to present thedigital media item to an entity. In one implementation, the contentsharing platform 120 may store the media items 121 using the data store106.

In one implementation, the server 130 may be one or more computingdevices (e.g., a rackmount server, a server computer, etc.). In oneimplementation, the server 130 may be included in the content sharingplatform 120. The server 130 may include an information identificationcomponent 140. In one implementation, the information identificationcomponent 140 determines how to decorate embedded graphicrepresentations on social shares with metadata to present to a user ofthe content sharing platform 120. In one implementation, the decoratedembedded graphic representation(s) provided to a user is a UI componentthat allows the user to decide whether to consume the content item onone or more social networks (which may include the content sharingplatform 120 as well as other external social networks 150 external tothe content sharing platform 120). The determination of how to decorateembedded graphic representations on social shares can depend on thecontent item associated with the embedded graphic representation and thecurrent statistical information for the content item. Furtherdescription of the information identification component 140 and itsspecific functions is described in more detail below with respect toFIG. 2.

Although implementations of the disclosure are discussed in terms ofcontent sharing platforms and decorating representations of a contentitem on a social network, implementations may also be generally appliedto any type of network providing connections between users.Implementations of the disclosure are not limited to content sharingplatforms or social networks.

In situations in which the systems discussed here collect personalinformation about users, or may make use of personal information, theusers may be provided with an opportunity to control whether the contentsharing platform 120 collects user information (e.g., information abouta user's social network, social actions or activities, profession, auser's preferences, or a user's current location), or to control whetherand/or how to receive content from the content server that may be morerelevant to the user. In addition, certain data may be treated in one ormore ways before it is stored or used, so that personally identifiableinformation is removed. For example, a user's identity may be treated sothat no personally identifiable information can be determined for theuser, or a user's geographic location may be generalized where locationinformation is obtained (such as to a city, ZIP code, or state level),so that a particular location of a user cannot be determined. Thus, theuser may have control over how information is collected about the userand used by the content sharing platform 120.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an information identificationcomponent 140 in accordance with one implementation of the disclosure.In one implementation, the information identification component 140includes a statistic identification module 210 and a response deliverymodule 220. More or less components may be included in the informationidentification component 140 without loss of generality. For example,two of the modules may be combined into a single module, or one of themodules may be divided into two or more modules. In one implementation,one or more of the modules may reside on different computing devices(e.g., different server computers).

The information identification component 140 is communicatively coupledto the data store 106. For example, the information identificationcomponent 140 may be coupled to the data store 106 via a network (e.g.,via network 105 as illustrated in FIG. 1). In another example, theinformation identification component 140 may be coupled directly to aserver where the information identification component 140 resides (e.g.,may be directly coupled to server 130). The data store 106 may be amemory (e.g., random access memory), a cache, a drive (e.g., a harddrive), a flash drive, a database system, or another type of componentor device capable of storing data. The data store 106 may also includemultiple storage components (e.g., multiple drives or multipledatabases) that may also span multiple computing devices (e.g., multipleserver computers). The data store 106 includes content itemrepresentations 255, current statistic data 260, social network data265, and user data 270.

As discussed above, the information identification component 140determines how to decorate an embedded graphic representation withmetadata on a social share in a user interface. Determining how todecorate an embedded graphic representation with metadata may includereceiving a request for a content item, identifying current statisticalinformation for the content item, and providing a response to therequest that includes the representation and data indicative of thecurrent statistical information.

In one implementation, the statistic identification module 210identifies current statistical information for a content item inresponse to receiving a request for the content item from a socialnetwork that hosts a UI document (e.g., a web page or a mobile deviceapplication) including a social share referencing or embedding thecontent item. The request for the content item can be a request for arepresentation (e.g., thumbnail) of the content item. A social share canbe a comment, a post, or any other content shared by a user of thesocial network with one or more other users of the social network andpresented in a social network UI. The statistic identification module210 can identify the current statistical information for the contentitem from a data store, such as from current statistical information 260in data store 106. Current statistical information 260 can includedynamic data associated with the content item, such as a number of likesassociated with the content item, a number of dislikes associated withthe content item, a number of comments associated with the content item,a number of views associated with the content item, rating informationassociated with the content, ranking information associated with thecontent item, identification information (e.g., viewer name, login name,etc.) for one or more viewers associated with a user that have viewedthe content item, identification information (e.g., viewer name, loginname, etc.) for one or more viewers associated with the user that haveliked the content item, trending information for the content item (e.g.,whether the content item is currently trending up, down, etc.), uploadinformation for the content item (e.g., newly uploaded, timestamp ofwhen the content was uploaded, etc.), etc.

In one embodiment, the statistic identification module 210 identifiesthe current statistical information for the content item from currentstatistical information 260 based on the social network from which therequest was received using social network data, such as social networkdata 265 in data store 106. Social network data 265 can include metricsassociated with the social network, such as a metric of successassociated with the social network, or other information about thesocial network, such as a name of the social network, information aboutusers of the social network, implementation details for the socialnetwork, etc. that can be used to determine which statisticalinformation to identify.

In an alternate embodiment, the statistic identification module 210identifies the current statistical information for the content item fromcurrent statistical information 260 based on a metric associated withthe content sharing platform. In another alternate embodiment, thestatistic identification module 210 identifies the current statisticalinformation for the content item from current statistical information260 based on the user associated with the request for the content itemusing user data, such as user data 270 in data store 106. User data 270can include information about a current user of the social network, suchas a name of the user, an age of the user, a geographic location of theuser, viewers or friends associated with the user, channel subscriptionsfor the user, websites or people that the user follows, etc.

In another alternate embodiment, the statistic identification module 210identifies the current statistical information for the content item fromcurrent statistical information 260 by identifying interactive elementsfrom current statistical information 260, such as graphical componentsthat describe the content item.

The response delivery module 220 can deliver a response to the socialnetwork. The response delivery module 220 can deliver the response byobtaining a representation for the content item from content itemrepresentations 255 and the current statistical information identifiedby the statistic identification module 210 and providing therepresentation and data indicative of the current statisticalinformation to the social network.

FIG. 3 is an example screenshot illustrating a UI displaying an embeddedgraphic representation decorated with metadata on a social share inaccordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure. The userinterface 300 is provided to a user viewing a social share referencing acontent item at a client device. For example, the user interface 300 isprovided to a user when the user requests a social network page thatincludes the social share. The user interface 300 can be provided to auser via a web browser, an application (e.g., a mobile app), embedded ina third party web page, etc.

The user interface 300 includes a social share 310. The social share 310includes a representation 320, a first current statistic 330 and asecond current statistic 340. The representation 320 can be an embeddedgraphic representation for a content item. For example, therepresentation A can be a thumbnail of content item A. In oneembodiment, the representation 320 is presented as part of or within aniframe (not shown). When a user activates (e.g., clicks and/or selects)the representation 320, the content item associated with the activatedrepresentation 320 may be presented as part of the user interface 300.For example, user interface 300 may present a media player (not shown inthe figures) that may be used to consume or play the content itemassociated with the activated representation 320. The first currentstatistic 330 can be a first current statistic identified from currentmetadata for the content item. The first current statistic 330 canrepresent a real-time dynamic value for the content item included in thesocial share 310. For example, the first current statistic 330 is acurrent value for the number of views for the content item A, such as1,000,000 views. The second current statistic 340 can be a first currentstatistic identified from current metadata for the content item. Thesecond current statistic 340 can represent a real-time dynamic value forthe content item included in the social share 310. For example, thesecond current statistic 340 is a current value for the number of likesfor the content item A, such as 500,000 likes. In one embodiment, thefirst current statistic 330 and/or the second current statistic 340 arepresented as part of or within an iframe. The iframe presenting thefirst current statistic 330 and/or the second current statistic 340 maybe the same iframe or a different iframe than the iframe presenting therepresentation 320.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating an embodiment for a method 400 ofdecorating embedded graphic representations on social shares withmetadata. The method 400 may be performed by processing logic that mayinclude hardware (e.g., circuitry, dedicated logic, programmable logic,microcode, etc.), software (e.g., instructions run on a processingdevice to perform hardware simulation), or a combination thereof. In oneembodiment, the method 400 is performed by a server (e.g., the server130 of FIG. 1).

For simplicity of explanation, the methods of this disclosure aredepicted and described as a series of acts. However, acts in accordancewith this disclosure can occur in various orders and/or concurrently,and with other acts not presented and described herein. Furthermore, notall illustrated acts may be required to implement the methods inaccordance with the disclosed subject matter. In addition, those skilledin the art will understand and appreciate that the methods couldalternatively be represented as a series of interrelated states via astate diagram or events. Additionally, it should be appreciated that themethods disclosed in this specification are capable of being stored onan article of manufacture to facilitate transporting and transferringsuch methods to computing devices. The term “article of manufacture,” asused herein, is intended to encompass a computer program accessible fromany computer-readable device or storage media. In one implementation,method 400 may be performed by information identification module 120, asshown in FIG. 1.

At block 405, processing logic receives a request for a content item.The request for the content item can be a request for a representation(e.g., thumbnail) of the content item. The content item can beassociated with a social network. For example, the content item can bereferenced in a social share included on a social network pageassociated with a user. The social network page can be a personalwebpage of the user and can include pictures, videos, music, and othermedia items to share. A social share can be a comment, a post, or anyother context that is associated with the social network page. Thecontent item can otherwise be associated with a social network withoutdeparting from the scope of the present disclosure.

In one embodiment, processing logic receives the request for the contentitem when a user requests a social network page that includes or embedsthe content item. In an alternate embodiment, processing logic receivesthe request for the content item when a user associates the content itemwith the social network, such as by posting the content item to a socialnetwork page on or hosted by the social network.

In one embodiment, the request for the content item includes a link tothe content item. The link to the content item may have been previouslyprovided to the social network by a content sharing platform that storesor otherwise has access to the content item. The content sharingplatform can provide the link for the content item to the social networkwhen a reference to the content item is included in the social networkpage. For example, the link is provided to the social network when thecontent item is posted or otherwise included (e.g., embedded) in asocial network page associated with the social network. The link can beused by the social network to populate the social network page when thesocial network page is loaded by a web browser or application. Forexample, user A uploads video A to the content sharing platform and userB later posts video A to user B's social network page. In this example,the content sharing platform will provide a link for video A to thesocial network when user B posts video A to user B's social networkpage.

The target of the link can be a representation for the content item,such as a thumbnail of the content item. The representation of thecontent item can be an embedded graphic representation when the contentitem is embedded in the social network page. In one embodiment, the linkcan be a metadata embed URL that represents an inline frame (iframe)that will render metadata representing the content item. In oneembodiment, an iframe may be a document container that is used toembed/insert another document within a current document. For example, aniframe may be used to insert/embed a first web page into a second webpage. In another example, an iframe may be used to insert/embed a mediaplayer (e.g., an application, program, app, software module, etc., thatplays or consumes content items) into a web page. The iframe that willrender the metadata representing the content item can include a title ofthe content item, a description of the content item, a depiction of thecontent item uploader (e.g., linkable name and profile image of thecontent item), and current statistical information for the content item.The iframe that will render the metadata representing the content itemmay also include a graphic representation of the content item in someembodiments. In an alternate embodiment, the link can be a UniformResource Locator (URL) for the content item or a representation of thecontent item (e.g., thumbnail URL), such as an identifier for athumbnail associated with the content item and may not includeadditional information for the content item.

An example of HTML code that may be used to present the metadatarepresenting the content item and/or the content item in the socialshare of the user may be the following exemplary iframe HTML code:

<iframe src=“//csp.site/embed/v=urvdPutOthY” ></iframe>

The social network may use the iframe HTML code to present an iframethat includes a representation of the content item and/or the metadata(e.g., current statistical information) associated with the contentitem. The content presented in the iframe (e.g., the representation ofthe content item and/or the current statistical information for thecontent item) may be provided by the content sharing platform when amedia viewer presents and/or displays (e.g., renders) the iframe that isincluded in the social share of the user. In another embodiment, thedata indicative of the content item and/or the current statisticalinformation for the content item may be other data, such as arepresentation (e.g., images, icons, frames, etc.) or text (e.g., title,description, etc.). For example, instead of providing the iframe HTMLcode, the content sharing platform may provide an image (e.g., arepresentation) and text (e.g., a title, current statisticalinformation, etc.) of the content item that is included in the socialshare of the user. The social network may use the representation andtext when providing the content item in the social share.

At block 410, processing logic identifies current statisticalinformation for the content item. The current statistical informationcan include dynamic data associated with the content item, such as anumber of likes associated with the content item, a number of dislikesassociated with the content item, a number of comments associated withthe content item, a number of views associated with the content item,rating information associated with the content, rating informationassociated with the content item, rating information associated with thecontent item, ranking information associated with the content item,identification information (e.g., viewer name, login name, etc.) for oneor more viewers associated with a user that have viewed the contentitem, identification information (e.g., viewer name, login name, etc.)for one or more viewers associated with the user that have liked thecontent item, trending information for the content item (e.g., whetherthe content item is currently trending up, down, etc.), uploadinformation for the content item (e.g., newly uploaded, timestamp ofwhen the content was uploaded, etc.), etc. In an optional embodiment,processing logic can aggregate the dynamic data associated with thecontent item with additional data from one or more external sites thatreference or include the content item. The external site can be thesocial network from which the request is received, another socialnetwork, or other external site (e.g., a blog, news site, etc.). Forexample, video A is included on a content sharing platform A, a socialnetwork site B, and a blog C, and includes 3000 views, 2000 views, and1000 views respectively. In this example, processing logic can aggregatethe views from the content sharing platform and one or more of theexternal sites, such as the number of views from site A and site B(3000+2000=5000 views), the number of views from site A and site C(3000+1000=4000 views), and the number of views from site A, site B, andsite C (3000+2000+1000=6000 views).

If the request for the content item includes a metadata embed URL,processing logic can identify the current statistical information fromthe metadata representing the content item that is associated with themetadata embed URL. If the request for the content item includes a URLfor the representation of the content item, processing logic canidentify the current statistical information by obtaining the currentstatistical information from the content sharing platform. For example,if processing logic receives a request for video A that includes thethumbnail URL http://www.contentsharingplatform.com/videoAthumbnail,processing logic obtains the current statistical information for video Afrom www.contentsharingplatform.com.

In one embodiment, processing logic identifies the current statisticalinformation for the content item based on the social network from whichthe request was received. In one such embodiment, processing logicidentifies the current statistical information based on a metric ofsuccess associated with the social network. In this embodiment,processing logic can determine the metric of success by maintaininginformation for a metric of success for each social network, byobtaining the metric of success from the social network, etc. Forexample, processing logic receives a request from social network A for acontent item and processing logic determines the metric of success forsocial network A is time on the site. In this example, processing logiccan identify the length of the content item as the current statisticalinformation. In another example, processing logic receives a requestfrom social network B for a content item and processing logic determinesthe metric of success for social network B is a number of views,processing logic can identify the number of views of the content item asthe current statistical information. In another such embodiment,processing logic identifies the current statistical information based ona metric requested by the social network. In this embodiment, the socialnetwork can provide the metric to processing logic as part of therequest, as a separate request, etc.

In another alternate embodiment, processing logic identifies the currentstatistical information for the content item based on a metricassociated with the content sharing platform. For example, processinglogic identifies the number of views of the content item as the currentstatistical information when the metric associated with the contentsharing platform is a number of views.

In an alternate embodiment, processing logic identifies the currentstatistical information for the content item based on the userassociated with the request for the content item. Processing logic canidentify the current statistical information for the content item basedon the user by determining the user associated with the request,accessing personalized information associated with the user, andidentifying the current statistical information based on thepersonalized information associated with the user. Processing logic candetermine the user associated with the request based on metadataincluded as part of the request or in addition to the request.Processing logic can access personalized information associated with theuser by obtaining the personalized information from a repository, fromthe social network, etc. The personalized information associated withthe user can include personal information about the user, such as thename of the user, the age of the user, a geographic location of theuser, etc. The personalized information associated with the user canfurther include viewers or friends associated with the user, such asfriends included in a social circle of the user, viewers that the userlikes or has otherwise expressed interest in, etc. Processing logic canidentify the current statistical information based on the personalizedinformation associated with the user by customizing the current metadataassociated with the content item to the user. For example, if thecurrent metadata includes the number of likes for the content item andthe personalized information associated with the user includes friendsof the user, processing logic can identify the current statisticalinformation to include the number of likes for the content item and avisual representation (e.g., identifier, picture, etc.) of the user'sfriends who liked the video. In another example, if the current metadataincludes the number of views for the content item and the personalizedinformation associated with the user includes friends of the user,processing logic can identify the current statistical information toinclude the number of views for the content item and a visualrepresentation (e.g., identifier, picture, etc.) of the user's friendswho viewed the video. In yet another example, the current dataassociated with the content item includes channel information for thecontent item and includes a subscribe button that indicates whether ornot the user is subscribed to the channel on the content sharingplatform.

In another alternate embodiment, processing logic identifies the currentstatistical information to include interactive elements. For example,processing logic identifies the current statistical information thatincludes extra graphical components which describe whether the contentitem is currently trending or is newly uploaded.

Other alternate embodiments for identifying the current statisticalinformation can be used without departing from the scope of the presentdisclosure.

At block 415, processing logic provides data indicative of therepresentation of the content item and data indicative of the currentstatistical information associated with the content item to the socialnetwork. In some embodiments, data indicative of the representation is agraphic representation of the content item. The representation for thereference can be a thumbnail, a graphic or other representationassociated with the content item. In some embodiments, data indicativeof the current statistical information is the current statisticalinformation for the content item. For example, for a request for asocial share including video A, which has 10 views and 5 likes, theresponse includes a thumbnail for video A, 10 views, and 5 likes. Inanother embodiment, the data indicative of the representation of thecontent item is an iframe HTML code, a representation, an image, text,etc. and the data indicative of the current statistical informationassociated with the content item is an iframe HTML code, arepresentation, an image, text, etc.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating an embodiment for a method 500 ofdisplaying an embedded graphic representation decorated with metadata ona social share in a user interface. The method 500 may be performed byprocessing logic that may include hardware (e.g., circuitry, dedicatedlogic, programmable logic, microcode, etc.), software (e.g.,instructions run on a processing device to perform hardware simulation),or a combination thereof. In one embodiment, the method 500 is performedby a server (e.g., the server 130 of FIG. 1).

For simplicity of explanation, the methods of this disclosure aredepicted and described as a series of acts. However, acts in accordancewith this disclosure can occur in various orders and/or concurrently,and with other acts not presented and described herein. Furthermore, notall illustrated acts may be required to implement the methods inaccordance with the disclosed subject matter. In addition, those skilledin the art will understand and appreciate that the methods couldalternatively be represented as a series of interrelated states via astate diagram or events. Additionally, it should be appreciated that themethods disclosed in this specification are capable of being stored onan article of manufacture to facilitate transporting and transferringsuch methods to computing devices. The term “article of manufacture,” asused herein, is intended to encompass a computer program accessible fromany computer-readable device or storage media. In one implementation,method 500 may be performed by information identification module 120, asshown in FIG. 1.

At block 505, processing logic provides a request for a content item toa content sharing platform. The request for the content item can be arequest for a representation (e.g., thumbnail) of the content item. Thecontent item can be associated with a social network and processinglogic can provide the request for the content item to a content sharingplatform. For example, the content item can be referenced in a socialshare included on a social network page associated with a user. Thesocial network page can be a personal webpage of the user and caninclude pictures, videos, music, and other media items to share. Asocial share can be a comment, a post, or any other context that isassociated with the social network page. The content item can otherwisebe associated with a social network without departing from the scope ofthe present disclosure.

In one embodiment, processing logic provides the request for the contentitem when a user requests a social network page that includes or embedsthe content item. In one such embodiment, processing logic can obtain ametadata embed URL for the content item that represents an inline frame(iframe) that will render metadata representing the content item. Inthis embodiment, processing logic may have previously scraped themetadata embed URL from the social network page and taken a snapshot ofthe metadata embed URL when the content item was included in the socialnetwork page, such that the metadata embed URL does not need to befetched each time the content item needs to be served. In another suchembodiment, processing logic can manually construct the metadata embedURL by obtaining an identifier for the content item from the originalcontent item URL and constructing the metadata embed URL using theidentifier for the content item. In an alternate embodiment, the linkcan be a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) for the content item or arepresentation of the content item (e.g., thumbnail URL), such as anidentifier for a thumbnail associated with the content item and may notinclude additional information for the content item.

In an alternate embodiment, processing logic provides the request forthe content item when a user associates the content item with the socialnetwork, such as by posting the content item to a social network page onor hosted by the social network.

In one embodiment, the request for the content item includes a link tothe content item. The link to the content item may have been previouslyprovided to the processing logic by a content sharing platform thatstores or otherwise has access to the content item. The link can be usedby the processing logic to populate the social network page when thesocial network page is loaded by a web browser or application and can becached by the processing logic.

The target of the link can be a representation for the content item,such as a thumbnail of the content item. The representation of thecontent item can be an embedded graphic representation when the contentitem is embedded in the social network page. In one embodiment, the linkcan be an inline frame (iframe) URL for the content item. In analternate embodiment, the link can be a Uniform Resource Locator (URL)for a representation of the content item (e.g., thumbnail URL).

At block 510, processing logic receives a response to the request forthe content item. In one embodiment, processing logic receives theresponse to the request from a content sharing platform that stores orotherwise has access to the content item. In an alternate embodiment,processing logic receives the response to the request from a memorystore (e.g., cache) associated with a social share on a social network.The response can include data indicative of the content item and thecurrent statistical information (e.g., iframe HTML code,representations, text, images, etc., as discussed above). The dataindicative of the content item can include a representation for thecontent item and current statistical information for the content item.The representation for the content item can be a graphic representationfor the content item, such as a thumbnail, or any other representationfor the content item. The current statistical information can includedynamic data associated with the content item, such as a number of likesassociated with the content item, a number of dislikes associated withthe content item, a number of comments associated with the content item,a number of views associated with the content item, rating informationassociated with the content item, ranking information associated withthe content item, identification information (e.g., viewer name, loginname, etc.) for one or more viewers associated with a user that haveviewed the content item, ranking information for the content item,identification information (e.g., viewer name, login name, etc.) for oneor more viewers associated with the user that have liked the contentitem, trending information for the content item (e.g., whether thecontent item is currently trending up, down, etc.), upload informationfor the content item (e.g., newly uploaded, timestamp of when thecontent was uploaded, etc.), etc.

At block 515, processing logic provides a UI presenting therepresentation and the current statistical information, such as on asocial network page associated with the social network. Processing logiccan provide the UI by rendering the iframe

FIG. 6 illustrates a diagrammatic representation of a machine in theexemplary form of a computer system 600 within which a set ofinstructions, for causing the machine to perform any one or more of themethodologies discussed herein, may be executed. In alternativeembodiments, the machine may be connected (e.g., networked) to othermachines in a LAN, an intranet, an extranet, or the Internet. Themachine may operate in the capacity of a server or a client machine inclient-server network environment, or as a peer machine in apeer-to-peer (or distributed) network environment. The machine may be apersonal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), a PersonalDigital Assistant (PDA), a cellular telephone, a web appliance, aserver, a network router, switch or bridge, or any machine capable ofexecuting a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specifyactions to be taken by that machine. Further, while only a singlemachine is illustrated, the term “machine” shall also be taken toinclude any collection of machines that individually or jointly executea set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more ofthe methodologies discussed herein.

The exemplary computer system 600 includes a processing device(processor) 602, a main memory 604 (e.g., read-only memory (ROM), flashmemory, dynamic random access memory (DRAM) such as synchronous DRAM(SDRAM) or Rambus DRAM (RDRAM), etc.), a static memory 606 (e.g., flashmemory, static random access memory (SRAM), etc.), and a data storagedevice 618, which communicate with each other via a bus 630.

Processor 602 represents one or more general-purpose processing devicessuch as a microprocessor, central processing unit, or the like. Moreparticularly, the processor 602 may be a complex instruction setcomputing (CISC) microprocessor, reduced instruction set computing(RISC) microprocessor, very long instruction word (VLIW) microprocessor,or a processor implementing other instruction sets or processorsimplementing a combination of instruction sets. The processor 602 mayalso be one or more special-purpose processing devices such as anapplication specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmablegate array (FPGA), a digital signal processor (DSP), network processor,or the like. The processor 602 is configured to execute instructions 626for performing the operations and steps discussed herein.

The computer system 600 may further include a network interface device622. The computer system 600 also may include a video display unit 610(e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD) or a cathode ray tube (CRT)), analphanumeric input device 612 (e.g., a keyboard), a cursor controldevice 614 (e.g., a mouse), and a signal generation device 620 (e.g., aspeaker).

The data storage device 618 may include a computer-readable storagemedium 624 on which is stored one or more sets of instructions 626(e.g., software) embodying any one or more of the methodologies orfunctions described herein. The instructions 626 may also reside,completely or at least partially, within the main memory 604 and/orwithin the processor 602 during execution thereof by the computer system600, the main memory 604 and the processor 602 also constitutingcomputer-readable storage media. The instructions 626 may further betransmitted or received over a network 616 via the network interfacedevice 622.

In one embodiment, the instructions 626 include instructions for aninformation identification module 650, which may correspond to aninformation identification component 140 of FIG. 1, and/or a softwarelibrary containing methods that decorates embedded graphicrepresentations on social shares with metadata. While thecomputer-readable storage medium 624 is shown in an exemplary embodimentto be a single medium, the term “computer-readable storage medium”should be taken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., acentralized or distributed database, and/or associated caches andservers) that store the one or more sets of instructions. The term“computer-readable storage medium” shall also be taken to include anymedium that is capable of storing, encoding or carrying a set ofinstructions for execution by the machine and that cause the machine toperform any one or more of the methodologies of the present disclosure.The term “computer-readable storage medium” shall accordingly be takento include, but not be limited to, solid-state memories, optical media,and magnetic media.

In the foregoing description, numerous details are set forth. It will beapparent, however, to one of ordinary skill in the art having thebenefit of this disclosure, that the present disclosure may be practicedwithout these specific details. In some instances, well-known structuresand devices are shown in block diagram form, rather than in detail, inorder to avoid obscuring the present disclosure.

Some portions of the detailed description have been presented in termsof algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on data bitswithin a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions andrepresentations are the means used by those skilled in the dataprocessing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their workto others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally,conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps leading to a desiredresult. The steps are those requiring physical manipulations of physicalquantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take theform of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored,transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It hasproven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, torefer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters,terms, numbers, or the like.

It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar termsare to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and aremerely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unlessspecifically stated otherwise as apparent from the following discussion,it is appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizingterms such as “determining”, “computing”, “calculating”, “obtaining”,“identifying”, “presenting,” “receiving,” “modifying”, “identifying”,“selecting”, “displaying”, or the like, refer to the actions andprocesses of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device,that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical (e.g.,electronic) quantities within the computer system's registers andmemories into other data similarly represented as physical quantitieswithin the computer system memories or registers or other suchinformation storage, transmission or display devices.

The present disclosure also relates to an apparatus for performing theoperations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for therequired purposes, or it may comprise a general purpose computerselectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored inthe computer. Such a computer program may be stored in a computerreadable storage medium, such as, but not limited to, any type of diskincluding floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, and magnetic-opticaldisks, read-only memories (ROMs), random access memories (RAMs), EPROMs,EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, or any type of media suitable forstoring electronic instructions.

Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment” or “anembodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, orcharacteristic described in connection with the embodiment is includedin at least one embodiment. Thus, the appearances of the phrase “in oneembodiment” or “in an embodiment” in various places throughout thisspecification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.In addition, the term “or” is intended to mean an inclusive “or” ratherthan an exclusive “or.”

It is to be understood that the above description is intended to beillustrative, and not restrictive. Many other embodiments will beapparent to those of skill in the art upon reading and understanding theabove description. The scope of the disclosure should, therefore, bedetermined with reference to the appended claims, along with the fullscope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving, by a processingdevice of a first content platform, a request of a user of the firstcontent platform to share a content item with one or more contacts ofthe user on a second content platform, the second content platform beingseparate from the first content platform; identifying, by the firstcontent platform, current statistical information associated with thecontent item, the current statistical information comprising combinedcounts of various interactions with the content item by a plurality ofviewers of the content item via the first content platform and thesecond content platform, wherein the combined counts comprise a firstcount aggregating views of the content item on the first contentplatform, which hosts the content item, and views of the content item onthe second content platform, and wherein the views of the content itemon the second content platform occur after the content item hosted bythe first content platform is shared on the second content platform; andproviding, by the first content platform, a graphic representation ofthe content item and the combined counts associated with the contentitem to the second content platform for presentation on a graphical userinterface (GUI) of the second content platform for the one or morecontacts of the user of the first content platform, wherein the graphicrepresentation of the content item, when activated by one of the one ormore contacts of the user of the first content platform, causes thecontent item to be presented to the one of the one or more contacts ofthe user of the first content platform on the second content platform.2. The method of claim 1, wherein the combined counts further compriseat least one of: a number of likes associated with the content item, anumber of dislikes associated with the content item, a number ofcomments associated with the content item, a rating of the content item,a ranking of the content item, viewers associated with a user that haveviewed the content item, viewers associated with the user that haveliked the content item, trending information for the content item, orupload information for the content item.
 3. The method of claim 1,further comprising: upon receiving the request of the user of the firstcontent platform to share the content item, sending an identifier of thecontent item to the second content platform, wherein the identifier ofthe content item is a link to the content item, and wherein the link isassociated with the graphic representation of the content item.
 4. Themethod of claim 3, wherein the link is an inline frame Uniform ResourceLocator (URL) associated with the representation for the content item.5. The method of claim 1, further comprising: prior to identifying thecurrent statistical information associated with the content item,receiving, by the first content platform, a request from the secondcontent platform for the graphic representation of the content item, therequest comprising an identifier of the content item.
 6. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the second content platform is a social networkplatform, and the graphic representation of the content item is to beincluded in a social share displayed on the GUI of the second contentplatform.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first content platformis a content sharing platform, and the content item is a video hosted bythe first the content platform and wherein the current statisticalinformation is at least one of a number of likes for the video at thetime of the request of the user or a number of views for the video atthe time of the request of the user.
 8. A method comprising: receiving,by a processing device of a first content platform, an identifier of acontent item shared by a user of a second content platform with one ormore contacts of the user on the first content platform, the firstcontent platform being separate from the second content platform;providing, by the first content platform, a request for a graphicrepresentation of the content item to the second content platform, therequest comprising the identifier of the content item; receiving, by thefirst content platform, a response to the request from the secondcontent platform, wherein the response to the request comprises currentstatistical information associated with the content item, the currentstatistical information comprising combined counts of variousinteractions with the content item by a plurality of viewers of thecontent item via the first content platform and the second contentplatform, wherein the combined counts comprise a first count aggregatingviews of the content item on the first content platform and views of thecontent item on the second content platform, which hosts the contentitem, and wherein the views of the content item on the first contentplatform occur after the content item hosted by the first contentplatform is shared on the first content platform; and providing, by thefirst content platform, a graphical user interface to present thegraphic representation of the content item and the combined countsassociated with the content item, wherein the graphic representation ofthe content item, when activated by one of the one or more contacts ofthe user of the second content platform, causes the content item to bepresented to the one of the one or more contacts of the user of thesecond content platform on the first content platform.
 9. The method ofclaim 8, wherein the combined counts further comprise at least one of: anumber of likes associated with the content item, a number of dislikesassociated with the content item, a number of comments associated withthe content item, a rating of the content item, a ranking of the contentitem, viewers associated with a user that have viewed the content item,viewers associated with the user that have liked the content item,trending information associated with the content item, or uploadinformation associated with the content item.
 10. A non-transitorycomputer readable storage medium having instructions that, when executedby a processing device, cause the processing device to performoperations comprising: receiving, by a first content platform, a requestof a user of the first content platform to share a content item with oneor more contacts of the user on a second content platform, the secondcontent platform being separate from the first content platform;identifying, by the first content platform, current statisticalinformation associated with the content item, the current statisticalinformation comprising combined counts of various interactions with thecontent item by a plurality of viewers of the content item via the firstcontent platform and the second content platform, wherein the combinedcounts comprise a first count aggregating views of the content item onthe first content platform, which hosts the content item, and views ofthe content item on the second content platform, and wherein the viewsof the content item on the second content platform occur after thecontent item hosted by the first content platform is shared on thesecond content platform; and providing, by the first content platform, agraphic representation of the content item and the combined countsassociated with the content item to the second content platform forpresentation on a graphical user interface (GUI) of the second contentplatform for the one or more contacts of the user of the first contentplatform, wherein the graphic representation of the content item, whenactivated by one of the one or more contacts of the user of the firstcontent platform, causes the content item to be presented to the one ofthe one or more contacts of the user of the first content platform onthe second content platform.
 11. The non-transitory computer readablestorage medium of claim 10, wherein the combined counts further compriseat least one of: a number of likes associated with the content item, anumber of dislikes associated with the content item, a number ofcomments associated with the content item, a rating of the content item,a ranking of the content item, viewers associated with a user that haveviewed the content item, viewers associated with the user that haveliked the content item, trending information for the content item, orupload information for the content item.
 12. The non-transitory computerreadable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the operations furthercomprise: upon receiving the request of the user of the first contentplatform to share the content item, sending an identifier of the contentitem to the second content platform, wherein the identifier of thecontent item is a link to the content item, and wherein the link isassociated with the graphic representation of the content item.
 13. Thenon-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein thelink is an inline frame Uniform Resource Locator (URL) associated withthe representation for the content item.
 14. The non-transitory computerreadable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the operations furthercomprise: prior to identifying the current statistical informationassociated with the content item, receiving, by the first contentplatform, a request from the second content platform for the graphicrepresentation of the content item, the request comprising an identifierof the content item.
 15. The non-transitory computer readable storagemedium of claim 10, wherein the second content platform is a socialnetwork platform, and the graphic representation of the content item isto be included in a social share displayed on the GUI of the secondcontent platform.
 16. The non-transitory computer readable storagemedium of claim 10, wherein the first content platform is a contentsharing platform, and the content item is a video hosted by the firstthe content platform, and wherein the current statistical information isat least one of a number of likes for the video at the time of therequest of the user or a number of views for the video at the time ofthe request of the user.
 17. A computing device comprising: a memory;and a processing device of a first content platform, wherein theprocessing device is coupled to the memory, wherein the processingdevice is to: receive a request of a user of the first content platformto share a content item with one or more contacts of the user on asecond content platform, the second content platform being separate fromthe first content platform; identify current statistical informationassociated with the content item, the current statistical informationcomprising combined counts of various interactions with the content itemby a plurality of viewers of the content item via the first contentplatform and the second content platform, wherein the combined countsinclude a first count aggregating views of the content item on the firstcontent platform, which hosts the content item, and views of the contentitem on the second content platform, and wherein the views of thecontent item on the second content platform occur after the content itemhosted by the first content platform is shared on the second contentplatform; and provide a graphic representation of the content item andthe current statistical information associated with the content item tothe second content platform for presentation on a graphical userinterface (GUI) of the second content platform for the one or morecontacts of the user of the first content platform, wherein the graphicrepresentation of the content item, when activated by one of the one ormore contacts of the user of the first content platform, causes thecontent item to be presented to the one of the one or more contacts ofthe user of the first content platform on the second content platform.18. The computing device of claim 17, wherein the combined countsfurther comprise at least one of: a number of likes associated with thecontent item, a number of dislikes associated with the content item, anumber of comments associated with the content item, a rating of thecontent item, a ranking of the content item, viewers associated with auser that have viewed the content item, viewers associated with the userthat have liked the content item, trending information for the contentitem, or upload information for the content item.
 19. The computingdevice of claim 17, wherein the second content platform is a socialnetwork platform, and the graphic representation of the content item isto be included in a social share displayed on the GUI of the secondcontent platform.
 20. The computing device of claim 17, wherein thefirst content platform is a content sharing platform, and the contentitem is a video hosted by the first the content platform, and whereinthe current statistical information is at least one of a number of likesfor the video at the time of the request of the user or a number ofviews for the video at the time of the request of the user.